Special Projects

Artifact Details

Title

Bell Labs TRADIC Computer

Catalog Number

102627244

Type

Still Image

Date

1955

Publisher

Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc.

Identifying Numbers

B1904/0-46

Other number

#1210a

Verso

Dimensions

8 x 10 in.

Description

Black and white image of the tail section of an airforce plane. The cargo door is open and inside is the TRADIC computer with three men, in suits, looking at manuals. The plane number is 37808. A white label on verso: "Bell labs logo, Public Relations Photo Service (201) 582-5661
Computers Subject: General - TRADIC Number: B1904/0-46
Source: Release, 1958 Date Taken: c.1958
TRADIC's new version, the first transistorized electronic brain for automatic bombing and navigation, gets a check at Morristown, N.J., by some of the Bell Telephone Laboratories engineers who designed and built the electronic system.
The system resulted from one of the earliest applications of transistors for the U.S. Air Force to airborne didital computers. From this program came the first all transistor computer, TRADIC, announced by Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1955.
The basic principles of TRADIC were applied to a new computer which developed into the new TRADIC system, the first all-transistor bombing and navigation computer, the system includes a partially transistorized radar, incoding and decoding devices, decimal display devices, the plane's instruments, and navigation equioment.
The new TRADIC is the fastest airborne digital computer system availabe. It can perform 62,500 basic computations per second and processes flight and other data fed it by the operator and the aircraft instruments. The system makes available to the Air Force a completely new apporach to achieving the accuracy, releability and ease of operation required of modern, airborne weapons systems.